Hello,
Since the latest Fedora 43 update, my Steam games no longer start. Whenever I try to launch any game from my library, it gets stuck at “Launching…”. Everything worked fine before the update.
System Information
OS: Fedora 43 Workstation (64-bit) Kernel: 6.17.8-300.fc43.x86_64 Desktop: GNOME CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5700X 8-Core Processor GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Driver: 580.105.08 RAM: 32 GB Steam: Version 1763795278 Steam Runtime: steam-runtime_1.0.20250929.168578
Installed NVIDIA Packages
akmod-nvidia.x86_64 580.105.08 xorg-x11-drv-nvidia.x86_64 580.105.08 nvidia-settings.x86_64 580.105.08 kmod-nvidia-6.17.8-300.fc43.x86_64 580.105.08 32-bit NVIDIA libraries for Steam installed: xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs.i686 Vulkan tools installed: vulkan-tools, libvulkan
Observations / Tests
- Lutris games work perfectly → GPU, drivers, Vulkan functional.
- Proton logs (
PROTON_LOG=1 %command%) → empty. - Steam Runtime forced (
STEAM_RUNTIME=1 steam) → no change. - Steam reinstalled / Runtime deleted → no change.
- SELinux → no AVC denials for Steam:
$ sudo ausearch -m avc -ts today | grep steam <no matches>
- GTK errors in Steam log:
/usr/share/themes/Adwaita/gtk-2.0/main.rc:733: error: unexpected identifier 'direction', expected character '}' /usr/share/themes/Adwaita/gtk-2.0/hacks.rc:28: error: invalid string constant "normal_entry", expected valid string constant
- Glycin / Sandbox warning:
WARNING: Glycin running without sandbox.
- Steam logs when launching games:
steam.sh[21245]: Running Steam on fedora 43 64-bit setup.sh[21297]: Steam runtime environment up-to-date! 11/23 20:43:12 Startup - Steam Client launched ... Steam Runtime Launch Service: starting steam-runtime-launcher-service ...
Steam gets stuck before Proton/game processes start.
Summary
- GPU, drivers, and Vulkan are working → other games (Lutris) run fine.
- Steam games / Proton do not start → logs remain empty.
- Steam hangs at launch → likely a Steam client issue or GTK/runtime interaction after the Fedora update.
Request for Help
Has anyone experienced a similar issue on Fedora 43 after the latest update? Are there known workarounds for Steam launch problems, or any additional logs I could provide to help debug this issue?
Additional Information – Tried NVIDIA Downgrades and Older Kernels
For completeness, I want to note that I have also tried:
- Downgrading the NVIDIA drivers to previous versions
- Booting with older kernels available on Fedora 43
Neither of these steps solved the problem – Steam games still get stuck at “Launching…” after the update. This indicates that the issue is unlikely to be caused by the latest NVIDIA driver or kernel alone.
Thank you in advance!